OK folks .... here's the very first Celebrity Day List ..maybe the first one ever. And as for Dawn Chorus ... who is she ? Probably one of those " Nature Lovers." Here's our 1st Celebrity .... setting off for a " Big Day" no doubt..... but what are those two birds on the left there ? Surely he can't have missed them ? Plus ... there's a big mistake on the book cover .... I'm sure you will spot it straight away ... Phew ! He's "getting" them right now .... but surely that's a different species ..he's bloody dipped on those other two, the silly arse ! What's your guess on that one then ? And those previous two . Aha ! He's scoped it .... it looks a bit glum. I wonder if it'll eat that arachnid at the bottom right ? .. he's getting distracted again.... but never mind him ..what are those two greeny-birds up there ? He's going to miss them if he doesn't look sharp. ..there's that blue flower to ID, and the tree ..... wake up there ! Hang on ... he's got the bins on them now ... but what are they ? I don't know why he's stopped there .. he's "got" that species already .... ..but what about this butterfly ? Aha ! He's having his dinner ... and cleverly luring in another tick .. or is it ? Here's a closer look .... Aha ! a juv !!! Tricky to identify though. What could it be ? There's a distinct lack of field guides to sort out chicks and/or nests. Maybe identifying the tree might help. Hang on ..you can't count domesticated birds.... we'll skip quickly over that one ... you'll also notice that he seems to have his scabbard on the "wrong" side. Surely he should have on his left side .. but in the picture it is on the right, and it would be quite a clumsy operation to get the sword out and ready to use. Whether he's "spotted" this one we don't know ... and we probably never will. Maybe some of my more experienced readers will let us know. Why has he taken the duck with him ? Is it going to be his dinner ? ..here's a close-up of it .... but it is still tricky to assess its size. Here's a tricky one... are they the same species that we saw at the start of his tick-fest ? They look a lot bigger .... have we got another case of " Size Illusion" here ? Hey .. we're all so busy noting down the key features, we haven't noticed that he's fallen off the bloody horse ! .. Aha .. maybe he's made an on-foot detour to get close up to this specimen ? ..could it be a dark morph of that one flying 2 frames up ? ... or a juv ? ... or does this species display sexual dimorphism ? ...... lots to think about there. Aha ! Back on (almost) firm ground now ... it looks as if this was actually a full-blown " Bird Race" between several rival teams... and they are now enjoying a picnic in perfect harmony, as always happens on these occasions. But .. what about that Owl ? What with all this revelry , they might have missed it .... ... or more likely, it's past the deadline. .. and here's, maybe, its mate flying in .... and presumably that thing at the bottom right leads us right back to the start. .. and finally, he decides to do a bit of bat-spotting too ... Here's a thing though ... wearing that wide-brimmed hat has probably lost him a few useful ticks. Just saying. So, in your humble opinion, what's his day-list, bearing in mind the various unresolved identification issues ? But here's another thing ... what's the music going to be ? Will there be any birds ?
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In the previous post, I wrote about my wonderful and amazing Multi-Year Diary ... And I encouraged you to make one, if you haven't done a similar thing already. And now I'm extracting My "Mays From The Past ..." 1st 2008 Ross's Gull "Granny's Bay" 2nd Zilch 3rd 1986 Serin ... my first ... high up in a tree at Wells, Norfolk. Singing like mad. 4th 1987 Night Heron, my first, Preston. 1996 Purple Heron, #2, Leighton Moss ( also seen on the next day) 2002 I "found" a Little Egret at Island Mere, L.M. .... rare then. 5th 1997 Citrine Wagtail, Freckleton. Lee turned up with a screech of brakes. 6th 1984 My first black-Necked Grebe @ Marton Mere 1996 First Ascent of Ward's Stone ... 11 Dotterels. 7th 2003 Wryneck, terrific views at Natland. Also, a smashing Transit of Mercury. You don't get many of them. 8th 2000 American Wigeon, L.M. 2014 Woodchat Shrike, Lancaster, embankment pool . 9th 1984 Stilt Sandpiper, Newman's Flash, Cheshire ... with my crap telescope. 1987 Ring-billed Gull, Heversham, Kent Estuary . 2002 Squacco Heron in a force 300 gale and torrential rain on Wlaney Island. 10th 2009 Greenland Wheatear, River Lune, Lancaster 11th 1989 Pectoral Sandpiper, my first, L.M. 1997 Little Egret, Warton .... a major Lancs twitch at the time + a Spoonbill. 2003 Savi's Warbler, L.M ..... I drew it too. 12th Nowt. 13th Short-toed Lark, Conway RSPB ... + old bloke with a massive home-made telescope. 14th 1994 Red-necked Phalarope, Martin Mere 15th Nuffink 16th 1993 Black-winged Stilt, Frodsham. 2001 Tawny Pipit, Heysham 2004 Bottle-nosed Dolphin, Heysham Harbour on a seawatch, 1st for there, and me. 17th Zero 18th 1998 Spoonbill, LM. Very rare in thosedays. 19th Nozzink 20th 1989 Baillon's Crake, Sunderland. Incredibly tame.Walked over my shoes. 2002 Spoonbill, LM Allen Pools ... have I mentioned their scarcity at that time ? 21st 2003 Great Reed Warbler Marton Mere ... what a bird !! 22nd 1999 Ten ( 10)(!) Bee-Eaters !!!! Newcastle area. Blimey!! Crumbs!!! Briwsion !!!! 2013 Red Kite Newton Stewart .... v. rare up here then. 23rd 1998 Little Egret, LM ... another reminder of how rare they were not so long ago. 24th 1986 Woodchat Shrike, my first, Walney. Took a bit of finding amongst the dunes. 1987 Thrush Nightingale Night Heron Bluethroat Red-backed Shrike .... all at Spurn. What a day that was. 1988 Wilson's Phalarope, LM 2003 Dipped drastically a White-Throated Sparrow at Caldy on't Wirral. Uuuuurgh. 25th Nada ! Nichts!! Dim byd !!! 26th 2002 Egyptian Goose .. LM ... er, nothing much to say about that. 27th 2004 Gt.White Egret ..first at Golden Ball, Lancaster, later at LM. Rare then. 28th 1987 Scarlet Rosefinch, South Gare, Cleveland. Smashing. 29th 1984 Cetti's Warbler ,my first. Even at 200m away, I knew what it was.. and I saw it too. 1988 Crested Tit, Loch Morlich ... also my first Osprey. But no Caper, ran out of time. 2009 Woodchat Shrike, Marshaw Lodge, Bowland, Lances. 30th 2004 Green-winged Teal, from the "No Smoking" hid eat Cley. I also got 2 Cetti's @ Walsey hills, 20 years and 1 day exactly since my first ... see 29th! 31st. After an amazingly productive month, sod all.... maybe I was recuperating at home. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Surely, 'tis music time .... but I can't think of anything " relevant".. .. I suppose we'll have to pick any old thing ..... Again, the font becomes massive when I publish the post ... and it has affected the layout of the post. I've tried making the text smaller and smaller but it makes no difference .. are you lot out there seeing it that way ? If so, let me know. Some of you might know why . [email protected] ( Oddly, both times I've typed this at the end of a post, it reverted to a "normal" size .... very odd ?? )( ..but now it's gone ridiculously tiny) |
AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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